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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 343 records · Page 19
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NASA NTRS1995

Mars Pathfinder Flight System Design and Implementation

This paper describes the system architecture, design and implementation approach for the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft scheduled to land on the surface of Mars on July 4, 1997. Mars Pathfinder is one of the new series of small, challenging missions doing significant science/engineering on a fast schedule and cost capped budget.

Mars↗
NASA NTRS1998

Navigation and Guidance for the Mars Surveyor 1998 Mission

Mars surveyor 98 is part of NASA's Mar Surveyor Program, a scientifically aggressive but tightly cost-constrained program of robotic Mars exploration, with the goal of sending two spacecraft to Mars every two years form 1997 to 2006.

navigation↗
NASA NTRS2005

Mars Aeronomy Explorer (MAX): Study Employing Distributed Micro-Spacecraft

An overview of a Mars Aeronomy Explorer (MAX) mission design study performed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is presented herein. The mission design consists of ten micro-spacecraft orbiters launched on a Delta IV to Mars polar orbit to determine the spatial, diurnal and seasonal variation of the constituents of the Martian upper atmosphere and ionosphere over the course of one Martian year. The spacecraft are designed to allow penetration of the upper atmosphere to at least 90 km. This property coupled with orbit precession will yield knowledge of the nature of the solar wind interaction with Mars, the influence of the Mars crustal magnetic field on ionospheric processes, and the measurement of present thermal and nonthermal escape rates of atmospheric constituents. The mission design incorporates alternative design paradigms that are more appropriate for-and in some cases motivate-distributed micro-spacecraft. These design paradigms are not defined by a simple set of rules, but rather a way of thinking about the function of instruments, mission reliability/risk, and cost in a systemic framework.

Mars↗
NASA NTRS2008

Anomaly Trends for Missions to Mars: Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey

Conducted as a part of NASA Ultra-Reliability effort: Goal is to design for increased reliability in all NASA missions. Desire is to increase reliability by a factor of 10. Study provides a baseline for current technology. Analyzed anomalies for spacecraft orbiting Mars. Long lived spacecraft. Comparison with current rover missions and past orbiters. Looked for trends to assist design of future missions.

Mars Global Surveryor↗
NASA NTRS1993

Mars Observer Lecture: Mars Orbit Insertion

The Mars Observer mission spacecraft was primarily designed for exploring Mars and the Martian environment. The Mars Observer was launched on September 25, 1992. The spacecraft was lost in the vicinity of Mars on August 21, 1993 when the spacecraft began its maneuvering sequence for Martian orbital insertion. This videotape shows a lecture by Suzanne R. Dodd, the Mission Planning Team Chief for the Mars Observer Project. Ms Dodd begins with a brief overview of the mission and the timeline from the launch to orbital insertion. Ms Dodd then reviews slides showing the trajectory of the spacecraft on its trip to Mars. Slides of the spacecraft being constructed are also shown. She then discusses the Mars orbit insertion and the events that will occur to move the spacecraft from the capture orbit into a mapping orbit. During the trip to Mars, scientists at JPL had devised a new strategy, called Power In that would allow for an earlier insertion into the mapping orbit. The talk summarizes this strategy, showing on a slide the planned transition orbits. There are shots of the Martian moon, Phobos, taken from the Viking spacecraft, as Ms Dodd explains that the trajectory will allow the orbiter to make new observations of that moon. She also explains the required steps to prepare for mapping after the spacecraft has achieved the mapping orbit around Mars. The lecture ends with a picture of Mars from the Observer on its approach to the planet.

Dodd, Suzanne R.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Moessbauer spectrometer for mineralogical analysis of the Mars surface: Moessbauer source considerations

Development of space rocketry and cosmic instrument making has made it possible to create interplanetary stations to be sent to the solar system bodies. In the last decade of the century the planet Mars will be in the focus of planetary science problems. Russia, USA (the NASA) and Europe (the ESA) plan to do a new step in the study of the planetary system by spacecraft missions to Mars. One part of the programs of these missions is Martian surface measurements of iron, which is a dominant element in both the Martian soil and rocks (about 13 percent by weight). The chemistry of iron in space is strongly coupled to the chemistry of abundant elements (to begin with hydrogen, carbon, oxygen) and it is this coupling of chemical cycles of abundant elements that gives us the possibility of understanding some features of the chemical evolution of matter. In this connection of extremely great importance for the understanding of the evolution of the solar system are the oxidation state of the iron and its mineral composition of the Mars surface. Being highly successful, the Viking landers had no instrumentation to answer these questions. Such instrumentation has to be specifically sensitive to mineralogy. For this purpose the back scattering Moessbauer spectrometer (MS-96) was proposed to be installed on a rover to be launched on board the Russian spacecraft Mars-96 mission to Mars. Due to power and mass restrictions three systems of the device MS-96 (velocity transducer, detector and electronic components) have been extremely miniaturized in comparison to a standard system. In this paper we intend to place for consideration a radioactive source to find out what characteristics it should have to be suitable for purposes of the experiment.

Evlanov, E. N.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Mariner IX optical navigation using Mars lit limb

Optical spacecraft navigation data, i.e., the lit limb TV image of Mars, acquired during the approach phase of the Mariner IX spacecraft to Mars, has been successfully demonstrated to augment the radio spacecraft tracking data. Accurate in-flight calibration of the TV instrument and the scan platform was performed by referencing stars and planets. Simulated real-time processing and the detailed postflight analyses of the onboard optical data have shown that planet limb data is an important data source in a far-encounter period for which other types of onboard optical measurements, e.g., natural satellite(s) of the target planet with star background, may not be available.

Jerath, N.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Site certification and landing

The process by which the landing site for the Viking lander spacecraft was certified is described. Soviet attempts to investigate Mars using the Mars class spacecraft are reviewed. Radar as a tool to study planetary surfaces is discussed. The launch and flight of Viking 1 are recounted. The challenges and success of soft landing of the Viking lander on the Martian surface are described.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2005

Two Successive Martian Years on the Orbit: Similarities and Differences of CO2 Seasonal Cycle from HEND/ODYSSEY Data

The three years of Mars Odyssey successful work on the martian orbit provide a lot of new information about peculiarities of long term variations of CO2 seasonal cycle. To start such analysis we have used observations of neutron albedo of Mars obtained by High Energy Neutron detector (HEND) mounted onboard Mars Odyssey spacecraft. The high latitude northern and southern regions of Mars are affected by global redistribution of atmospheric CO2 which resulted in 25% of atmospheric mass condensed on martian surface of these regions during winter period of time. The seasonal deposit is formed starting from 60N/60S latitudes and achieve its maximal thickness about 1 m at latitudes close to martian poles. Changes of CO2 deposit thickness is the reason for significant variations of neutron flux above martian poles from summer to winter seasons because CO2 frost effectively hides upper water rich surface layers from the orbit observations in neutrons and gamma-rays. This effect was used to estimate column density of CO2 deposit at different latitudes on North and South of Mars and reconstruct multidimensional model of CO2 deposit showing how snow depth varies as function of latitude, longitude and time. In this presentation we tried to make a next step in our study of martian seasonal CO2 cycle and look for similarities and differences between two successive martian years.

Litvak, M. L.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Overview of Electric Propulsion Projects at NASA Glenn Research Center

NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) is currently leading the development of multiple electric propulsion systems to flight readiness. The Advanced Electric Propulsion System is a 12.5 kW Hall thruster system that is being developed by the Solar Electric Propulsion Technology Demonstration Mission (SEP TDM) project, under the sponsorship of the Space Technology Mission Directorate. NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster-Commercial (NEXT-C) is 7 kW class gridded ion thruster system that being developed under the sponsorship of the Science Mission Directorate. NASA GRC is also providing electric propulsion discipline support to the Power and Propulsion Element and the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) missions, which will be the first applications for these technologies, respectively. Lower technology readiness level (TRL) projects are underway for applications including CubeSats, small spacecraft and Mars exploration vehicles. Under the sponsorship of the Small Spacecraft Technology Program, NASA GRC has performed numerous independent verification and validation tests of CubeSat class electric propulsion systems in support of a growing number of small US businesses that are developing these systems. Lastly, three technology development efforts focused on 100 kW EP strings led by Aerojet Rocketdyne, Ad Astra and MSNW were recently completed.

Smith, Bryan K.↗